By Sky News US Team
An online fundraiser for an Indiana pizzeria that attracted nationwide opprobrium after its owners said they would never cater for a gay wedding has collected more than $840,000 (£563,000).
Nearly 30,000 people sent money for Memories Pizza in Indiana through a GoFundMe page that has now stopped taking donations.
The restaurant in the town of Walkerton found itself in the eye of the storm over Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act after co-owner Crystal O'Connor spoke out on Tuesday.
Citing the new law and her Christian beliefs, she told a local TV reporter they would refuse requests to provide pizza for a hypothetical same-sex wedding reception.
Her father and co-owner Kevin O'Connor clarified later they would serve gay customers, just not same-sex nuptials.
Amid a nationwide backlash in which the parlour reportedly received threatening phone calls as well as graphic online reviews, they shut the business on Wednesday.
An Indiana girls' golf coach is facing a criminal investigation after she allegedly tweeted a suggestion that the restaurant be burned down.
In an interview on Saturday with Fox News Business, Ms O'Connor said she's not ready yet to reopen the pizzeria, but she thanks God for the outpouring of support.
"God has blessed us for standing up for what we believe, and not denying him," she said.
The online fundraiser was launched by TheBlaze, a conservative news network founded by Glenn Beck.
Lawrence Jones, a TheBlaze reporter who set up the GoFundMe page, said the original aim was to pull in $25,000 (£16,750) for the O'Connors.
The final total was $842,592 (£564,739).
"Our goal was simply to help take one thing off this family's plate as the strangers sought to destroy them," he said.
The legislation at the centre of the gay-rights debate has since been revised.
Facing national outcry from business leaders, Indiana's Republican governor this week ordered lawmakers to tweak the measure he had signed into law a week earlier.
The state of Arkansas followed suit by watering down a similar bill its legislature had just passed.
The original text of the legislation made no mention of gay or lesbian people, but prohibited state laws that "substantially burden" a person's ability to follow his or her religious beliefs.
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